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Author: Felipe Correa (Texas University Press, 2018)<\/b><\/p>\n
Clocking in at roughly 12.2 million people, the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo is the largest metropolis in South America and the 12th<\/sup><\/span> most populous on the planet. Including its perimeter urbanized areas increases its population to over 30 million\u2014just shy of the entire population of Canada\u2014a distinction worthy of the new title, S\u00e3o Paulo Macrometropolis<\/a> (a.k.a.\u00a0 <\/span>Expanded Metropolitan Complex). Sao Paulo is also a powerful global economic engine with the largest Gross Domestic Product in the Southern Hemisphere. But, like many similar cities around the world, it\u2019s many successes have met with equally significant challenges\u2014from growing traffic and crime to increasing economic disparity and an expanding, amorphous built environment.<\/p>\n All things considered, one is hard-pressed to argue against the fact that this is a twenty-first-century city worth careful analysis. And there is no better person to take the lead on this than New York-based architect and professor Felipe Correa<\/a>, who continues to patiently expand his list of excellent books focused on South American urbanism\u2014like the wonderful A Line in the Andes<\/i><\/a>\u2014with Sao Paulo: A Graphic Biography\/Uma Biografia Gr\u00e1fica<\/i>.<\/p>\n Insofar that Sao Paola embodies many of the challenges associated with rapidly densifying contemporary cities, the book can also be considered a general guide to how the built environment\u2014and empowering ordinary people within it\u2014can help provide solutions to many of the \u2018wicked problems\u2019 cities face today.\u00a0 <\/span>It also advocates for an interdisciplinary approach that engages the city across multiple scales and time: an approach that exposes often hidden relationships between various system that create the city.<\/p>\n The book is is organized around five sections\u2014Sao Paula: Models of Urban Growth, Collective Living in South America, Mobility Infrastructure: Driver of the Urban Project, Urban Plan and Visions of Sao Paulo, <\/i>and An Evolutionary Plan: Connecting the City and the River<\/i>\u2014each of which is structured around two elements\u2014an introductory write-up and a graphic section that includes a mesmerizing diversity of archival and original imagery, analytical maps, drawings and representations.<\/p>\n Taking up roughly half of the publication, Sao Paulo: Models of Urban Growth<\/i> is the lengthiest section of the book. It is divided into fifteen subsections, seven of which are interesting interdisciplinary essays contributed by a variety of practitioners and academics. The other half builds a provocative \u201cgraphic biography of the city,\u201d visualizing different processes that have shaped Sao Paulo over the twentieth century.<\/p>\n The processes highlighted are alluded to in their titles\u2014City of Ridges and Valleys<\/i> (looking at how water a hydrology affected the city), City of Citadels <\/i>(focusing on the city\u2019s urban grid), City of Points <\/i>(highlighting the evolution of built form towards a vertical city), City of Spreads and Densities <\/i>(concentrating on mobility infrastructure and its impacts over time), City of Voids <\/i>(focusing on the city\u2019s open spaces), City of Collective Living <\/i>(where a selection of the city\u2019s innovative market and non-market multifamily residential projects are described), City of Warehouses<\/i> (focusing on industrial growth) and City of Layered Economies <\/i>(highlighting the recent growth of commercial, institutional and cultural services that are currently shaping the city). Taken as a whole, these informative pieces are intended to build a comprehensive picture of the city\u2019s evolution across scale and time, and introduce some of the opportunities and challenges faced by the city.<\/p>\n Following this far-reaching depiction of Sao Paulo\u2019s recent urban history is the books second section, Collective Living in South America<\/i>. Where City of Collective Living<\/i> described above looked at inventive models of multi-unit domestic living within the city itself,\u00a0 <\/span>this section takes a larger scale perspective, bringing together a rich set of the ten canonical collective housing projects from around the continent. These diverse experimental works include market and non-market housing and are mainly described graphically using drawings. The section ends with a larger graphic timeline of significant collective living projects around South America and speaks well to the strong, yet often underplayed, legacy of urban housing projects there within the past century.<\/p>\n The architectural focus of the above section is complemented by Mobility Infrastructure: Driver of the Urban Project <\/i>that sets its gaze globally to document how other cities around the world have used mobility infrastructure investments as a means of structuring, grounding and integrating meaningful urban projects. Focusing on seven projects\u2014including such as Turin\u2019s Porta Susa TGV Station<\/a>, and New York\u2019s iconic Grand Central Station<\/a>\u2014this section does well to highlight how wise decision-making around mobility systems can lead to enduring, civically meaningful, and aesthetically pleasing infrastructural solutions that contribute to urban life: lessons that can be learned from Sao Paola as it updates its mobility networks, but also other cities in similar situations.<\/p>\n As the title suggests Urban Plan and Visions of Sao Paulo <\/i>explores Sao Paulo\u2019s archival material to compile a concise inventory of thirteen built and proposed projects that have shaped the city\u2019s urban discourse. They are present in chronological order\u2014starting with the 1880 proposal for\u00a0<\/span>viaduct connecting the S\u00e9 district<\/a> of Sao Paulo and the Praca da Republica<\/a>\u00a0and ending with\u00a0<\/span>the 2013 theoretical proposal for A New Modern Art Museum<\/a> by Angelo Bucci\/SPBR Arquitetos\u2014opening with a graphic timeline of twentieth and early twenty-first century projects for Sao Paulo.<\/p>\n The book fittingly ends with An Evolutionary Plan: Connecting the City and the River<\/i> that summarizes several of the challenges currently facing Sao Paulo and, building on the earlier content within the book, speaks to four design opportunities for the Arco Tiete area of the city: a 40 sq.km. post-industrial landmass located between the Tiete River and Sao Paulo\u2019s main rail line.\u00a0 <\/span>As with the rest of the book, the section is dominated by beautiful representations that speak to multi-scalar concerns over time.<\/p>\n It is worth noting that, similar to\u00a0A Line in the Andes<\/i><\/a> before it, the Sao Paulo<\/i> is bilingual\u2014written for both English and Portuguese audiences. As such, one need not fear the book\u2019s large 9.25\u201d x 11.5\u201d frame, as it\u2019s quite an easy read, especially given how graphic-heavy it is.<\/p>\n Overall, Sao Paulo: A Graphic Biography\/Uma Biografia Gr\u00e1fica <\/i>is an exceptional addition to Correa\u2019s growing list of publications and an exemplar of urban analysis and graphic communication. Although its focus is on a single city and aspects that can help it evolve meaningfully into the future, its lessons are applicable well beyond the boundaries of Sao Paulo to other contemporary cities that suffer from many of the same challenges\u2014from outdated mono-functional infrastructure to derelict post-industrial lands ready for reenvisioning.<\/p>\n Ultimately, however, it shows the power and necessity of multi-scalar thinking across time and discipline, as a means of understanding urban dynamics. And one can only hope that it will inspire others to make similar contributions for their respective cities.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n For more information on\u00a0<\/i>Sao Paulo: A Graphic Biography\/Uma Biografia Gr\u00e1fica<\/i><\/b>, visit the University of Texas Press website<\/a>.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n **<\/p>\n Erick Villagomez<\/i><\/b>\u00a0is the Editor-in-Chief at Spacing Vancouver. He is also an educator, independent researcher and designer with personal and professional interests in the urban landscapes. His private practice \u2013\u00a0<\/i>Metis Design|Build<\/i><\/a>\u00a0\u2013 is an innovative practice dedicated to a collaborative and ecologically responsible approach to the design and construction of places. You can see more of his artwork on his\u00a0<\/i>Visual Thoughts Tumblr<\/i><\/a>\u00a0and follow him on his instagram account:\u00a0<\/i>@e_vill1<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"